Immune Shielding of Human Heart Valves: A Proof-of-Concept Study of HLA-Targeting Therapy for Transplantations.

Children born with defective heart valves require multiple donor valve replacements throughout life, because these cannot grow and can cause early failure through immune degeneration. This study tests the lentiviral delivery of viral immune evasion genes US2 and human serpin 9 to shield human heart valves from immune rejection. The results show we can efficiently down-regulate human leukocyte antigen expression in heart valve cells and in intact heart valve tissue resulting in decreased activity of a human leukocyte antigen-reactive CD8+ T-cell clone without inducing cytotoxicity.

Targeting Soluble TGF-β Factors: Advances in Precision Therapy for Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension.

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a rare progressive disease characterized by pulmonary artery vascular remodeling, increased vascular resistance, and subsequent right ventricular hypertrophy and right heart failure. It is triggered by disrupted transforming growth factor (TGF)-β signaling, including loss-of-function mutations in the bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) receptor 2. Emerging treatments aim to inhibit elevated TGF-β levels or enhance diminished endothelial BMP signaling.

TGF-β receptor-specific NanoBRET Target Engagement in living cells for high-throughput kinase inhibitor screens.

Targeting transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) receptors is a promising pharmacological approach to normalize aberrant signaling in genetic and non-genetic TGF-β associated diseases including fibrosis, cancer, cardiovascular and musculoskeletal disorders. To identify novel TGF-β receptor kinase inhibitors, methods like in vitro kinase assays, western blot or transcriptional reporter assays are often used for screening purposes. While these methods may have certain advantages, the lack of integration of key features such as receptor specificity, high-throughput capability, and cellular context resemblance remains a major disadvantage.